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Speeding Penalties Increase in Illinois Today

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (IRN) – If she were alive today, Julie Gorczynski of Frankfort, Illinois may have completed two years of college.

Instead, her name is on a new law punishing speeders such as the one who caused the crash that killed her a week after her high school graduation in 2011.

“Julie’s Law,” which takes effect Monday, forbids Illinois judges from sentencing a speeder to court supervision – a non-reporting form of probation in which the offense disappears from one’s record – if the driver is going 31 mph over the speed limit in a rural area or 25 mph over the speed limit in an urban area.

“What you do with what happens can make a positive difference in the world,” says Julie’s mother, Pam Gorczynski. “I would not want another mother, or a father, brother, or sister, to go through this.”